Ocean Master

Throughout the reprimanding session, none of the earth domain magic sharks in the construction department expanse stirred. It was like they were already used to such scenarios; they simply gave their work one-minded focus.

As soon as Sebastian left, elder Marble also stopped his work as he turned around to swim out of the expanse.

He didn't lie, he indeed had a meeting to catch.

…

Inside Old Mak's throne chamber, a gathering of the strongest sharks in the clan was organized as a meeting was about to commence to discuss the issue that cropped up in recent times.

Elder Marble was the last shark to arrive due to his encounter with Sebastian. As soon as he arrived, the meeting officially started.

The participants of the meeting were the strongest 5, Old Mak, Queen Heareth, Elder Marble, Elder Dangle, and Elder Shine.

Being the leader of the clan and also the only shark most familiar with the strange creatures known as Atlantians, Old Mak spoke first.

He first deliberated on the matter of the attack against the Gigantic White hunting team. After expressing his anger and regret at the death of 5 of their most promising young sharks, he finally diverted to those that were captured.

What was the motive of the Atlantians for capturing them alive? This became the point of focus of the meeting for the moment.

Throughout their life as predators, they hunted prey only to eat and harness their magic essence. Though this was the case, they have also met rare encounters where some predators capture their prey alive.

In this scenario, these predators either capture their prey alive to feed their young ones or to torture them. 

In Oceania, there were thousands of different species, and there was no lack of creatures with warped personalities, instincts, and tendencies.

As soon as Old Mak asked the question, Elder Marble speculated that the Atlantians captured the sharks to torture them. 

In the stories told by Old Mak, he already revealed that Atlantians could not harness the magic essence in monsters unlike them. After eliminating this was why Elder Marble settled for the reason of torturing.

Unlike the first elder, Elder Dangle speculated that it was probably to serve as a show of power towards the clan, while Elder Shine and Queen Heareth remained silent the whole time.

If he didn't know, perhaps, Old Mak may have seen the speculations of his 2 elders as rational and feasible but as someone who knew what the word Atlantians represented in the outside world, he knew better.

Atlantians were the undisputed ruler of this world. It was too beneath them to come engaging in a game of power with a shark clan like theirs in a region as backward as this ocean volcano region.

Without hesitation, Old Mak shot down the speculations of his 2 elders, revealing his sound argument to them.

He's told them stories about Atlantians, but he had never emphasized the power of this hegemon in detail to them. He didn't know much, but the little that he knew was able to paint Atlantis as a mountain while they were mere ants.

Though the elders felt that he exaggerated a little, they still believed him due to the credibility that he already developed among them.

And though Old Mak shot down their speculations, the problem was that he also didn't have a counter speculation to explain the motive of the Atlantians.

His previous owner may have been an Atlantian, but he knew enough about them not to want to get close to them. All he wished at this moment was for these hegemons to disappear as silently as they appeared.

In the end, with no feasible speculation in mind, Old Mak took the meeting forward and introduced the second topic.

What should be the clan's reaction to the Atlantians' appearance, and the attack on the Gigantic White hunting team?

Without hesitation, all the elders except Queen Heareth voted that they retaliate and fight despite already hearing Old Mak's Atlantian explanation.

Marble took the lead and spoke. "As you said, they may be stronger than us but that does not mean we should cower. I don't believe these Atlantians came with their whole forces to beat ants like us like you said".

"Against a small Atlantian team, I believe we can emerge victoriously".

"Old Mak, remember, the day we start cowering is the day we regress. That is the law of our world, that is the law of predators".

Hearing his old friend's words, the clan head was put in a dilemma as he struggled with going with his own plan or listening to his elders' suggestions. In the end, after thinking extensively, he decided to temporarily settle for balance. 

They wouldn't retaliate immediately, neither would they stay silent permanently. He decided to adopt a wait-and-see approach.

The permanent decision will be taken once the Atlantians make their next move and they've observed enough. Then, they would understand the real motive of the enemies and make proper preparations to face them.

Though Marble was not all-in with the plan, he still reluctantly agreed. 

With that settled, the meeting was about to come to an end but Old Mak brought up another point. This point was about the new shark, Sebastian.

What did the elders think about the abnormally peculiar young shark?

Elder Marble once again spoke first, having just recalled his talk with the shark. Without mincing words, he told the clan head and every one of the shark's ridiculous ambitions. 

"What's anatatomy?" This was Old Mak and the others' reaction to the term. 

For once, everyone in this seat of upper echelons agreed with Elder Marble. Creating a department in the clan was something that had a lot of implications, it could not be taken lightly.

After they finished talking about the department ambition from the young shark, they diverted to the shark himself.

The elder's view about Sebastian was a watch-and-see approach. For the first time in years, they didn't believe the figures of their own evaluation, they were more inclined to believe that the shark altered them in some way.

This was another fact to legitimate the fact that Sebastian was special. Not only did he have abnormal strength, he perhaps had other secrets too.

And this was verified again when after one hunting session with him not only protecting Shanks, but the young shark evolving in the process.

In the end, they all concluded to just observe him from a distance while keeping the core secrets of the clan from him. He would only know more after he proved his loyalty to the clan.

With that, the meeting finally came to an end.